Glad I Kept Going

Good Monday Morning!

So last week I started this whole skipping breakfast thing.  The book I read stated very clearly that this was an "advanced technique" and that a certain protocol had to be followed exactly.  In all fairness, the author is a very fit person with an already low body fat percentage.  I'm sure if you are already starting out fit, and are trying to reduce body fat even further that a strict protocol would be necessary.  HOWEVER, I'm a fatty, not a fit person.  I have been skipping breakfast all week and trying to increase my fruit and vegetable intake (Notice I said "trying". I'm not going crazy here.  I'm not eating 8-10 servings of Fruits and Veggies every day. That isn't a bad goal, but I'm not going to get there overnight. I'm just trying to eat more than I did a few weeks ago and this week I'll try to eat a little more than last week.)  and I have seen results!.  The scale is down 2.8 pounds since last Monday! (Yes, I know that it is mostly water, and no, I don't expect these results every week.)

Now, conventional wisdom says that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" and "never, ever, ever, EVER, skip meals because then you will over eat at your next and subsequent meals.  Weeelllll, that may be true for most people.  Maybe it's true for the majority of people, but right now it's working for me.  If it stops working, I'll adjust.  That adjustment may include adding breakfast back in to my day.  We'll see.  I have found that I do NOT over eat at my next meal or later meals.  Actually, I have found that skipping breakfast seems to allow my "full signal" to kick in sooner when I'm eating lunch and dinner.  I'm guessing that this is actually me being more aware. Actually feeling hunger, perhaps, allows me to recognize "non-hunger" full as opposed to "stuffed" full.  When I start a meal in a "non-hungry" state, stuffed is what feels full to me.  When I start a meal hungry (I mean h.u.n.g.r.y!) "full" isn't anywhere near "stuffed".  And 20 minutes later I'm not hungry and I'm not carrying around a "food baby" and all the discomfort that comes 20 minutes after you've stuffed yourself and it has swelled in your belly to "super-stuffed" proportions.  

I should probably mention that I work with a personal trainer 3 days a week.  I don't want to lose muscle mass! IF I see that I'm getting weaker instead of stronger at the gym, I will adjust.  I have been working with the trainer for almost 2 years, so I will know if I'm not progressing and so will he! I have seen good results from working with the trainer.  My body looks better.  I am stronger.  Many of my aches and pains have subsided completely or only rear their ugly heads once in a while. But without changing my food, training will only take me so far.  I reached that point months ago, but I was unwilling to make changes.

Skipping breakfast seemed like something that was doable for me. I felt I could skip it and not overeat at lunch.  It helps that I bring my lunch from home on most days, so I can only eat what I have planned to eat. I did go out to eat 1 day last week and on an earlier day I was at a seminar luncheon.  I was worried about the seminar because I knew my choices would be limited and it was the first day I was eating at a restaurant instead of eating a lunch I brought.  This is when I first noticed that I was getting full sooner.  I made a conscious effort to put my fork down between bites and take it slow (another habit that they say is good for you) and really tried to pay attention to how my stomach felt.  Some may say that it was the slower eating that helped me to eat less.  Maybe. I do know that even at meals that I wasn't "paying attention" and ate at my normal, fast pace, I still got full sooner and on less food.   So far, so good! I'm going to continue until it stops working!

So far, so....meh.

I'm on day three of no breakfast and eating at least 1 piece of whole fruit a day.  The results so far have been pretty disappointing. Tuesday morning's weigh in had me up .6 pounds.  I really don't feel like I over-ate on Monday, so maybe it's just water weight.  This morning's weigh in was the same as yesterday. Monday and Tuesday's lunches were Mexican restaurant leftovers.  I realize that it was probably loaded with calories, but I feel like I was reasonable with my portion sizes. Today's lunch was leftover chicken breast and veggies from home.  At least I know exactly what is in it, since I made it at home. I have been bringing my lunch from home, instead of going out, to save money.  Hopefully it will save me calories too.  I'm a bit discouraged by the lack of progress, but I'm determined to stick with the plan of making only one or two small changes every few weeks.  If I don't see any progress at the end of a week, I will make only one small change.  I see no reason to stick with the exact same thing if it isn't yielding any results.  I don't want to do an entire revamp, though, so I will just keep making small changes.  

Starting Over

I don't even have to look at my last post to know that it has been ages since I've been here.  A few things have changed. With the help of my doctor, I finally took care of some health problems I was having.  And with the help of a personal trainer, I have begun to change my body composition.  I don't weigh a lot less than I did (I've lost about 10 pounds) but I am definitely stronger and leaner than before.  My clothes fit better. I'm slimmer through the middle and my legs are thinner.  I'm still fat, but improvement is good.

They say that losing weight is 80% diet and only 20% exercise.  They're right.  I, like many others before me, was hoping that I could exercise myself into a great body and still eat whatever I want.  Nope.  Not happening.  This November will make 2 years that I've been working with my trainer. TWO YEARS. And I'm only 10 pounds lighter.  It looks like more than 10 pounds because I've lost fat and gained muscle.  However, 10 pounds is not enough.  I simply must change my diet.  Everything in me wants to become a "healthy eater" overnight.  But most of what I've read says to go veeeerrrrryyyy  ssssslllllooooowwwwwllllyyy.  I've done tons of reading and research and the recommendation that makes the most sense to me is to make one or two  small changes and stick with them for a month.  Then make one or two more small changes and stick with the first change(s) and the second change(s) for another month.  Keep going until I really am a healthy eater.

My 50th birthday is about 18 months away.  I would like to lose about 3 pounds a month from now until then.  I haven't set a specific weight goal mainly because I wasn't working out when I was at the weight at which I was happy (about 124 pounds).  That may be a reasonable weight for me, or it may not, since my body composition has changed.  So I'm going to start out with teeny tiny goals.  The first one is 3 pounds by October 10th.  That's 4 weeks away, so not even a pound a week.

Last night I decided that my first change to make/habit to create was eating a healthy breakfast before I left the house.  FAIL.  I made some oatmeal and threw in some chia seeds, cinnamon, vanilla and a little stevia.  It tasted fine...but it made me want to gag.  I am NOT a firstthinginthemorning breakfast person. AT. ALL.  So I googled "is breakfast really necessary" and guess what? The jury is still out.  So change/habit 2.0 is (drumroll please) SKIP BREAKFAST!  There is some information out there in internet land that something called Intermittent Fasting (or IF) can be an effective way to lose weight.  If you google intermittent fasting you will find that there are many different "protocols" to IF.  I chose to adopt 16 hours of fasting, then 8 hours of  "feeding".  Simply put, I'll eat dinner around 6pm and won't eat again until 10am or later.  There are possible pitfalls, like overeating at lunch, eating foods that aren't particularly healthy for lunch or dinner, etc.  I'll have to do some planning, like making sure I pack a nutritious lunch the night before and planning to incorporate some "treats" (dark chocolate! YUM!) here and there.

The second change I am adopting for this month is to eat at least 1 serving of fresh fruit daily.  I chose to add this habit, rather than take away or replace a "bad" habit because skipping breakfast is already "taking away" something.

Wish me luck!

I'm not sure I'm buying it

Paleo, Primal, whatever.  I'm not buying into the basic philosophy of our bodies not being "evolved" so we can't eat this or that.  No, wait.  Technically I do agree with the idea that our bodies haven't evolved to use these foods.  It's the whole idea of evolution that gets on my nerves.  Doesn't it make sense that our bodies having adverse reactions to highly processed foods would support us not evolving?  If we were created this way from the very beginning, then it makes sense that we should eat the foods that were created for us in the forms that they were created.  In other words, eat foods as unprocessed as possible, in their natural state, as they were created.  The more humans "mess" with foods trying to "improve" them, the fatter and less healthy we are becoming.  However much I may disagree with the basic philosophy of these eating plans, I do agree with the eating plans to a great extent.  Why?  These plans advocate eating things as unprocessed as possible.

I have been eating low fat for decades and I just keep getting fatter and fatter. The low fat, high carb, highly processed typical American Diet is clearly not working for me. I'm tired of being fat, tired of being tired, tired of my body hurting and (a fairly new development) tired of being breathless. Currently I weigh 180 pounds.  On my little 5' frame this is waaaaayyyyyy too much! I plan on drastically changing my diet in three days.  Why then?  Well, tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  It's when my family has a big celebration with lots of highly processed, yummy junk food.  Christmas Day always consists of leftovers from the night before. I don't have time to find delicious substitutes, so I'm going to enjoy the time with family, try not to over do the junk and start guilt free the day after Christmas. 

I plan to post my progress, including what I weigh, what I eat (with links to recipes if I use a recipe I find online) and most importantly, how I'm feeling.  I hope this will eventually be a story of victory, my story of victory over poor health, fad diets, and the battle of the bulge.  I don't anticipate that this will be easy, but I don't think it will be an insurmountable task either.  Organization and pre-planning are not my strong suits, but I will adapt and hopefully will be able to share some busy working parent tips and tricks with you.  I'm a little nervous and a little excited.  I hope that as time goes on, I can be an inspiration and resource for others.  But for now, I'm just looking forward to the first step. 

Actions Speak Louder than Words

I spent my drive home today mentally railing against my daughter's boyfriend.  He's coming over for dinner tonight, about 10 days after I found out that my daughter is pregnant, and about 5 hours after finding out that he has lost his job....again.  I was playing the whole conversation that I'm going to have with him in my mind, which was easy, because I don't plan on letting him talk.  I had the whole speech typed out for you, but I deleted it, because there is a more important lesson at stake here (for me).  The gist of the speech was this, "Actions speak louder than words."

I stopped by the store on the way home to pick up some potatoes to go with dinner.  I also grabbed a bag of cookies, because I'm stressed and stuffing my face is what I do when I'm stressed.  After the quick stop, I jump in the car and continue to drive the rest of the way home and I continue to rant and rave (in my mind)  telling this guy how his actions say he only loves himself, and how my daughter has made all the sacrifices in the relationship and he has never had to suffer the consequences of his actions because she steps up and pays his bills for him. (That was a nice, long, run-on, rant-ish sentence, wasn't it?)

And then it hits me.  Actions speak louder than words.  How many times have I said I wanted to lose weight?  How many times have I said I want to be healthy?  How much have I hated being out of breath from the slightest activity?  And yet, there it was in the seat next to me.  The truth.  A bag of cookies.  I love cookies (or whatever other junk food strikes my fancy).   I love cookies more than my body, more than my health, more than I want to lose weight, more than my sweet family.  I prove it every time I choose to shove all those unhealthy calories in my mouth risking that I may shorten my life and not be here for my kids/grandkids/husband.  I prove that I love my immediate cravings for junk more than I love every wonderful person in my house over and over again.  I just keep on choosing the junk. Well, actions speak louder than words.  I told the boyfriend that it's time to step up, time to make sacrifices, time to take responsibility.  Yes, it's time, for him and for me.